This invention relates to the process of recruiting new employees, specifically harvesting email addresses belonging to potential viable candidates from sites and postings searched for and found on the Internet and sending specifically related help wanted advertisements via electronic mail to those addresses then receiving, filtering, sorting and distributing the response.
Classified help wanted advertising in print, television and radio media as well as postings of help wanted advertisements on Internet web sites are a common practice. Such mediums for prospecting employment candidates are passive in the context of the candidate seeker""s objectives. They require the reaction of a potential job seeker who must be reading a specific periodical, watching or listening to a specific broadcast or visiting a specific internet web site or requested a specific push technology internet broadcast. There are too many job opportunity broadcasts and sites available for any job seeker to peruse even a minor percentage on a timely basis. A candidate seeker could attempt to advertise through every applicable site and medium in order to reach every potential candidate however such a strategy is impractical if not impossible. Even if it were practical or possible the candidate seeker would not reach viable candidates who are not actively searching job opportunity advertising sites. The United States Federal Government predicts demand for technical labor in such areas as information technology, sciences, biotechnology and engineering to exceed supply by as much as fifteen percent by the year 2002. In such a situation competitive employers require more aggressive means to prospect employment candidate than the prior mentioned passive methodologies.
Bulk electronic mailing is a common process used to broadcast messages to groups of email addresses collected in databases however the processes used prior to Candidate Chaser are static and the targeting is dependent on pre-assembled databases of email addresses. In such cases where email address lists are procured from a database sources mailers are subject to limited accuracy on two categories: first, are the addresses still active, second, are the individuals interested in receiving email related to the mailers"" offerings. Furthermore, the present state of electronic mail address databases does not permit the targeting of addresses based on the individual owner""s experiences, interests, capabilities, professional titles or talents.
While bulk electronic mailing is unquestionably legal, there is a powerful lobby opposing general broadcasts of large untargeted and unsolicited bulk electronic mailings which consume huge amounts of internet communication bandwidth causing system delays, increased cost without benefit and mail server failures. Such mailings are broadcast to high quantities, 50,000-200,000 addresses at a time, in the hopes that a fraction, perhaps one tenth of a percent will reach a viable and interested audience. Most of the bandwidth consumption would not be necessary if a more targeted approach was used.
Employers spend over a billion dollars every year in the United States on employment agency fees, classified advertising costs, recruiting staff, the design of recruitment programs and software and referral bonus programs. Many of those employers are large companies that have invested tremendous development resources into solving their recruiting problems and cost reduction yet not a single one of them has created an automated recruiting system like the Candidate Chaser machine and process patented herein. The articles attached and labeled as Prior Art Documents #27, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42 indicate a recruiting industry searching for internet solutions to recruiting difficulties yet none suggest a solution similar to that presented by the Candidate Chaser machine and process supporting the position of unobviousness relating to the Candidate Chaser machine and process.
Most workers would like to be informed of employment opportunities with quality of life improving advantages including but not limited to compensation increases, advanced training, enhanced benefits, more challenge, diversity and improved career path provided notices of such opportunities were made at the workers"" convenience and that workers are not overwhelmed with non-applicable job offerings. Employment agencies and headhunters serve such a purpose but they are prohibitively expensive. No automated and more cost effective alternative was available until the herein described Candidate Chaser was invented.
Present job opportunity advertising systems take days and weeks to reach potential candidates.
While my research indicates no present use of bulk electronic mail for targeted help wanted advertising, use of available bulk email systems would result in xe2x80x9cbad addressxe2x80x9d responses from servers, remove responses, and revenge xe2x80x9cflamesxe2x80x9d from anti-spammers burdening and crashing the advertisers"" incoming electronic mail system.
A search of the IBM Patent Server at http://patent.womplex.ibm.com looking for the following words individually in the xe2x80x9cabstractxe2x80x9d field: recruit, recruiting, hire, hiring, job, candidate, classified, position, bulk, addresses, and recruitment turned up no relevant matching or related patents. A search on the same database for the phrase xe2x80x9celectronic mailxe2x80x9d turned up no apparently related patents except those patenting the process of sending and receiving electronic mail itself. The patent information and abstract which appear most closely related are attached and labeled as: Prior Art Document #28 U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,532, Prior Art Document #29 U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,141, Prior Art Document #30 U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,018, Prior Art Document #31 U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,334, Prior Art Document #32 U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,100, and Prior Art Document #33 U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,108.
A search for articles and publications discussing xe2x80x9crecruiting on the Internetxe2x80x9d turned up two hundred forty nine separate documents. While discussing the use of electronic mail for the circulation of resumes and discussion of job possibilities, no reference is ever made to any recruiting solution that even remotely resembles the Candidate Chaser machine and process. I believe this supports the unobviousness of the Candidate Chaser machine as a solution to recruiting difficulties. Those articles which best represent present art on the subject of xe2x80x9crecruiting on the Internetxe2x80x9d are attached and labeled as Prior Art Documents #27, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42.
There are a good number of commercially available computer software programs which can perform certain functions of the Candidate Chaser machine. However, none of them alone or in obvious combination accomplish the task of the Candidate Chaser. The said commercially available computer software programs are described in the attached Prior Art Documents #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22.